Olympics: Hoy Wins BBC Sports Personality Of The Year Award

LONDON: Olympic track cycling star Chris Hoy was crowned the BBC Sports Personality of the Year for 2008 at an awards ceremony in Liverpool on Sunday after topping a viewers’ poll.

The 32-year-old Scot won three golds – in the sprint, team sprint and keirin events in Beijing in August.

Hoy, who four years ago also won the gold medal in the one kilometre time-trial at the Athens Games, finished ahead of runner-up Lewis Hamilton, the Formula One world champion, while double Beijing swimming gold medallist Rebecca Adlington took third place.

“I really wasn’t expecting this, it’s such a shock,” said Hoy after being presented with his award by Olympic athletics greats Sebastian Coe and Michael Johnson.

“After the year I have had this is unbelievable – looking at the other names on this trophy, this is the big one.

“British sport has enjoyed one of the best years in my lifetime and has had so many successful athletes. To be standing here in front of these two, and all 10 nominees, is incredible.”

This award capped a memorable year for Hoy, who before heading to Beijing won world titles in both the keirin and the sprint at the British team’s home track in Manchester, northern England.

Cycling dominated the BBC awards.

Great Britain’s Olympic cycling team, which won eight golds in all in China, was named the BBC’s Team of the Year, while manager Dave Brailsford was chosen as Coach of the Year.

Last month Hamilton, 23, became Formula One’s youngest world champion.

Having almost taken the title in his rookie season, the Englishman, who drives for Britain’s McLaren team, came first in the standings but only after a nail-biting finish at the final race in Brazil when he overtook on the last corner to gain the fifth place he needed to secure the world championship.

This was the second straight year he’d finished runner-up in the BBC poll.

Adlington, 19, won two Olympic gold medals, in the 400 metres and 800 metres freestyle, at Beijing’s Water Cube in August.

In the process of finishing first in the 800m, Adlington also broke swimming’s longest-standing world record, clipping 2.12 seconds off American Janet Evans’s 19-year mark to come home in a time of eight minutes 14.10 seconds.

The teenager from Mansfield, central England, was the first British woman to win an Olympic swimming gold medal in 48 years since Anita Lonsbrough triumphed in the 200m breaststroke at the 1960 Games in Rome.

Football great Sir Bobby Charlton, a member of England’s 1966 World Cup winning team and whose tally of 49 goals in 106 international appearances is still a national record, was given the BBC’s Lifetime Achievement award.

Charlton, 71, survived the Munich air disaster which 50 years ago killed several members of the gifted ‘Busby Babes’ Manchester United team assembled by manager Sir Matt Busby.

The United great recovered to score twice in the 1968 European Cup final as the team from Old Trafford, then still managed by Busby, became the first English club to win the trophy with a 4-1 extra-time victory over Portuguese giants Benfica at London’s Wembley Stadium.

Charlton received the trophy from his older brother Jack, the former Leeds centre-half, who was also a member of the only England football team to have won the World Cup. – AFP/de

Olympics: Hoy Wins BBC Sports Personality Of The Year Award

LONDON: Olympic track cycling star Chris Hoy was crowned the BBC Sports Personality of the Year for 2008 at an awards ceremony in Liverpool on Sunday after topping a viewers’ poll.

The 32-year-old Scot won three golds – in the sprint, team sprint and keirin events in Beijing in August.

Hoy, who four years ago also won the gold medal in the one kilometre time-trial at the Athens Games, finished ahead of runner-up Lewis Hamilton, the Formula One world champion, while double Beijing swimming gold medallist Rebecca Adlington took third place.

“I really wasn’t expecting this, it’s such a shock,” said Hoy after being presented with his award by Olympic athletics greats Sebastian Coe and Michael Johnson.

“After the year I have had this is unbelievable – looking at the other names on this trophy, this is the big one.

“British sport has enjoyed one of the best years in my lifetime and has had so many successful athletes. To be standing here in front of these two, and all 10 nominees, is incredible.”

This award capped a memorable year for Hoy, who before heading to Beijing won world titles in both the keirin and the sprint at the British team’s home track in Manchester, northern England.

Cycling dominated the BBC awards.

Great Britain’s Olympic cycling team, which won eight golds in all in China, was named the BBC’s Team of the Year, while manager Dave Brailsford was chosen as Coach of the Year.

Last month Hamilton, 23, became Formula One’s youngest world champion.

Having almost taken the title in his rookie season, the Englishman, who drives for Britain’s McLaren team, came first in the standings but only after a nail-biting finish at the final race in Brazil when he overtook on the last corner to gain the fifth place he needed to secure the world championship.

This was the second straight year he’d finished runner-up in the BBC poll.

Adlington, 19, won two Olympic gold medals, in the 400 metres and 800 metres freestyle, at Beijing’s Water Cube in August.

In the process of finishing first in the 800m, Adlington also broke swimming’s longest-standing world record, clipping 2.12 seconds off American Janet Evans’s 19-year mark to come home in a time of eight minutes 14.10 seconds.

The teenager from Mansfield, central England, was the first British woman to win an Olympic swimming gold medal in 48 years since Anita Lonsbrough triumphed in the 200m breaststroke at the 1960 Games in Rome.

Football great Sir Bobby Charlton, a member of England’s 1966 World Cup winning team and whose tally of 49 goals in 106 international appearances is still a national record, was given the BBC’s Lifetime Achievement award.

Charlton, 71, survived the Munich air disaster which 50 years ago killed several members of the gifted ‘Busby Babes’ Manchester United team assembled by manager Sir Matt Busby.

The United great recovered to score twice in the 1968 European Cup final as the team from Old Trafford, then still managed by Busby, became the first English club to win the trophy with a 4-1 extra-time victory over Portuguese giants Benfica at London’s Wembley Stadium.

Charlton received the trophy from his older brother Jack, the former Leeds centre-half, who was also a member of the only England football team to have won the World Cup. – AFP/de